Taiwan must secure a strategic position in the “new space age” and grasp the commercial opportunities heralded by low Earth orbit satellites, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
The “new space age” refers to the increasing commercialization of space, with the private sector playing a more important role than national governments.
Tsai yesterday visited the headquarters of the National Space Organization (NSPO) at the Hsinchu Science Park along with Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅).
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu City Government
It is estimated that thousands of low Earth orbit satellites would be launched in the next decade, generating massive demand for satellite and ground equipment manufacturing, Tsai said.
The next decade is very crucial as many nations are also planning to return to the moon and Taiwan must secure a more strategically significant position in the “new space age,” she said.
Building on Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and precision manufacturing, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Development Fund are cooperating with local firms to try to grab a share of the global supply chain, she added.
Tsai expressed the hope that NSPO Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信), nicknamed “Uncle Rocket,” would be able to “rocket” local space technology into space.
After Wu assumed his position on Aug. 2 he has been restructuring the NSPO to highlight the development of satellite payloads, components and avionics.
Asked about his rationale, Wu said that the NSPO in earlier years had to purchase many components from foreign suppliers when developing a satellite.
The lack of autonomous development of certain components caused uncertainty about their import and delayed satellite development, he said.
Following the restructuring, the NSPO would be able to devote more resources to developing satellite payloads and components, Wu said.
The flight control division and electrical engineering division have been merged into a new satellite avionics division, he said.
Speaking about the NSPO’s plans, Wu said weather satellite Triton (獵風者) is scheduled to be launched next year and it also plans to develop a second low Earth orbit communications satellite for the Beyond 5G project, set to be launched in 2025 or 2026.
The Beyond 5G project only consisted of one satellite when it was initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology in January with a budget of NT$4 billion (US$144.3 million).
The specifications of the two B5G communications satellites would be comparable to those of the Starlink satellites developed by SpaceX, Wu said.
Asked whether there would be more funding to produce satellites, Executive Yuan Board of Science and Technology Executive Secretary Andrew Yeh (葉哲良) said that more deliberation is needed and that the results would be known by the end of this year.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
RSS